Rail Rangers South Shore Line Inaugural Run

Chicago to South Bend, Indiana (Roundtrip)

APRHF Rail Rangers Lead Interpretive Guide Robert Neil talks to a passenger

This past Saturday
(August 5, 2017) marked the inaugural run for the American Passenger
Rail Heritage Foundation’s Rail Rangers program on the South Shore Line
between Chicago, Illinois and South Bend, Indiana. Dozens of passengers
turned out to listen to the new series of live on board educational
programs that cover a wide variety of topics, including the downtown
and south side neighborhoods of Chicago, the historic steel mill region
of Northwest Indiana, the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, and the
“breadbasket” agricultural region of western La Porte and St. Joseph
Counties.

Things got underway with the departure of South Shore Line Train #503
at 8:40am Central Time from Millennium Station. Even though the APRHF
Rail Rangers have been involved with dozens of private rail excursions
out of Chicago over the past two years, this was the first time that
our guides have done a program departing Millennium Station. All other
programs have been out of Union Station, which is located about two
miles away across the Loop. The original station on the site was
constructed by the Illinois Central Railroad in 1856 and was known as
‘Great Central Station’. It changed names to Randolph Street Station,
and finally Millennium Station (in 2005). South Shore Line trains
operate out of the first level; the second level of platforms below is
used by Metra Electric commuter service to University Park, Illinois.
South Shore and Metra Electric trains share stations and trackage for
the first 14.5 miles of the South Shore’s trip to South Bend, Indiana
(until Kensington/115th Street). No long-distance passenger trains use
Chicago’s Millennium Station.

At the conductor’s request, our interpretive guides set up the program
in the third car back from the front of the train going eastbound
(which became the sixth car back going westbound). One of the benefits
of doing programs on the South Shore’s eight-car train sets is that one
car can easily be designated for narration. Those who want to hear the
program can have a seat and enjoy learning about the surrounding
landscape. Those who want a more quiet experience and/or don’t care to
learn about what is out their window have the ability to move to one of
the other cars on the train. Aboard for the first run were APRHF
Vice-President/Rail Rangers Executive Director Robert Tabern, APRHF
Secretary/Rail Rangers Chicago Coordinator Kandace Tabern, and Rail
Rangers Lead Interpretive Guide Robert Neil. Nearly 80 passengers were
in attendance in the Rail Rangers Car both ways to hear the program —
several traveled just to hear the narration since the program was
advertised in media around Northwest Indiana and South Bend during the
week prior.
While passing through the south side of Chicago, Interpretive Guides
pointed out various major landmarks like the Field Museum, Soldier
Field, McCormick Place, and the Museum of Science and Industry. All are
with-in easy walking distance of the tracks used by the South Shore
Line. One of the “lesser known” attractions that caught the attention
of a lot of passengers was live narration about Woods Oak Cemetery,
located just west of the South Shore Line tracks near 67th Street. More
than 4,000 Confederate Civil War Prisoners of War are buried here. They
died while being held between 1863 and 1865 at Chicago’s Camp Douglas.
It was considered the “Andersonville of the North” and was the largest
Prisoner of War Camp operated by the Union Army. Even several life-long
Chicagoans on the train admitted that they didn’t know about Camp
Douglas or that thousands of Confederate soldiers are buried in a mass
grave on the south side of Chicago.

Robert Neil and Kandace Tabern prepare to board Train #503 at Millennium Station in Downtown Chicago

The front of westbound South Shore Line Train #503 at Millennium Station in Chicago

Both rail enthusiasts and those who knew little about railroad history
alike enjoyed passing by Pullman National Monument. The South Shore
Line travels right by the clock tower and administration building of
the old Pullman Factory. George Pullman set up shop here in the late
1800′s to make sleeping cars. The area morphed into a “company town”
with its distinctive row houses. The area became a national monument in
2015, with the National Park Service planning a major restoration in
the coming years.

After stopping at Hegewisch (the last station stop in Illinois),
passengers began passing through the steel mill and industrial area of
Northwest Indiana. Cities along the way include Hammond, East Chicago,
and Gary. One highlight was passing through a field of fuel storage
tanks. Interpretive Guide Robert Neil explained to everyone that if you
added up the capacity from all of the tanks, it would equal 1.3 million
gallons. Inside was fuel, jet fuel, and ethanol. Pipelines connect the
storage tanks to places as far away as Pennsylvania, Ohio, and far
Southwestern Illinois. Chicago Coordinator Kandace Tabern explained how
iron ore pellets are brought down from Northern Minnesota on Great
Lakes barges to the steel mills in Gary, which sits on the southernmost
point on Lake Michigan. Meanwhile, Executive Director Robert Tabern
played a clip of the song ‘Gary, Indiana’ from the musical ‘The Music
Man’ for everyone over the PA system when we stopped at Gary’s Metro
Center station. Gary was also the birthplace of pop singer Micheal
Jackson.
The next section of the journey includes passing through the very heart
of the Indiana Dunes National Lakehore, a unit of the National Park
Service. The park was created in 1966 after the Port of Indiana was
built, destroying a large area of sand dunes – some of which were upto
200 feet high. The National Park Service maintains a visitor center,
trails, campgrounds, and even horse trails. Four stops on the South
Shore Line are in or adjacent to the National Lakeshore, meaning people
can use the South Shore to get to the park without having to deal with
busy traffic on I-80, I-90, or I-94. Several beaches on Lake Michigan
are even with-in walking distance of the train line.

Rail Rangers Chicago Coordinator Kandace Tabern swears in the program's first Junior Rail Ranger on the South Shore Line

A passenger gets his Passport to Your National Parks cancellation stamp on the train for the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore

APRHF Vice President and Rail Rangers Executive Director Robert Tabern
says, “The APRHF and the Rail Rangers are looking forward to working
with the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and the National Park Service
in the future to enhance and further promote our new onboard
educational programs on the South Shore Line. We have already signed an
agreement that our interpretive programs are officially part of the
Indiana Dunes Volunteer-Guided program schedule. All of our volunteer
hours will be given to the park… this helps them get more funding for
programs and things that need to be done in the park. We have a meeting
down in Indiana with park management on October 22nd to figure out how
we can even better collaborate on this. The Indiana Dunes National
Lakeshore has wanted to have onboard guides on the South Shore Line for
many years, but it wasn’t until the APRHF got involved that we were
able to bring all sides together to make something like this to happen.”

You may remember that the APRHF previously worked with the National
Park Service between 2012 and 2015 when both organizations co-sponsored
a Trails & Rails program on Amtrak’s Southwest Chief between
Chicago and La Plata, MO. When Trails & Rails decided to terminate
the Chicago-based Trails & Rails program through Illinois, Iowa,
and Missouri, the APRHF Rail Rangers was formed to focus on private
rail excursions. The Rail Rangers expanded to public rail programs in
November 2016 with the start-up of programs on the then-Iowa Pacific
operated Hoosier State train between Lafayette, Indiana and Chicago.
When Amtrak took the route back over in March 2017, the Rail Rangers
set their focus on partnering with the South Shore Line. After six
month of research and paperwork, the first program launched August 5th.
Tabern says, ” Things are a little different in this renewed
partnership with the National Park Service. The South Shore has been
amazing to work with every step of the way. When we were under the
Trails & Rails umbrella, we had to work with Amtrak officials. With
the Rail Rangers program on the South Shore, we are going to be working
directly one-on-one with the staff at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore
to promote our program and better educate our guides about the park
they are doing programs about. When we did Trails & Rails, we
worked remotely with some ranger 1,000 miles away in Texas. That just
didn’t work for us. Also, Rail Rangers and the American Passenger Rail
Heritage Foundation Board of Directors will be maintaining day-to-day
operational control over the programs on the South Shore. Amtrak and
the National Park Service had the controlling interest in the
APRHF-sponsored Trails & Rails program on the Southwest Chief and
the ability to end the program. We won’t be giving that up this time
around with the Rail Rangers on the South Shore based on what happened
with Trails & Rails two years ago.”

All aboard! Train #506 is ready to leave for the westbound journey back to Downtown Chicago

The Rail Rangers look forward to
working with both the South Shore Line and the Indiana Dunes National
Lakeshore in the future months

After leaving the Indiana Dunes, the train passes through Michigan City
and rural farm landscapes before reaching South Bend. Some of the sites
mentioned to passengers include the former Monon Route used for Abraham
Lincoln’s Funeral Train, a boarding school that the current Chief
Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court attended, a lake that has fresh water
jellyfish, and new natural gas power plant being built, and a bog
containing insect-eating plants.

The first eastbound program ended at 12:10pm Eastern Time when
the train rolled into the South Bend Airport South Shore Line station.
After a 55-minute break, a similar program (except presented in
reverse) was given to westbound passengers between South Bend and
Chicago. Crowds were even bigger for the run back to Chicago, with many
passengers attending a music festival that evening at Grant Park in
Chicago.

If you missed the inaugural run of the Rail Rangers on the South Shore,
don’t worry! More programs will be presented two to three
Saturdays per month. Upcoming dates include August 26, September 9,
September 23, October 7, October 21, and October 28. Additional dates
in November 2017, December 2017, and January 2018 will be announced
soon. For more information about the APRHF Rail Rangers and our new
program on the South Shore Line, contact Executive Director Robert
Tabern and our team of Interpretive Guides by e-mailing
railrangers@aprhf.org.